Google Back in Spotlight Over UK Taxes

Recent records show that Google paid US$55 million in UK taxes in 2012 on sales of nearly $5 billion to British costumers.

Google is the poster child for corporate tax avoidance, at least in the UK, where these records are sure to raise eyebrows. British lawmakers have grilled execs for designating neighboring Ireland -- which has a lower corporate tax rate than the UK -- as its official European sales base. In May, Margaret Hodge, chair of the public accounts committee, told Matt Brittin, Google's northern Europe boss, that Google's behavior on taxes was "devious," "unethical" and...wait for it... "evil."

UK parliament has
scolded
other U.S. companies, as well, but Google seems to absorb the brunt of the antipathy (even if Eric Schmidt
says
it shouldn't).

Tax avoidance was a major
theme
of last summer's G8 summit. It was held in the UK.

Nokia Regains Access to Indian Accounts

Nokia said Monday that it had regained access to its Indian bank accounts after tax authorities there froze the company's accounts last week.

Authorities reportedly froze all of Nokia's Indian assets -- including its factories -- to ensure that the company could pay its future tax bill, which is expected to be nine figures long.

Microsoft purchased Nokia's cellphone unit in September. The frozen assets won't affect the Microsoft deal, expected to be completed early next year, a Nokia spokesperson said.

Nokia has been operating in India for nearly 20 years. Even so, in January Indian officials
raided
a Nokia factory to recover what they claimed was $500 million in back taxes. Over the summer, before its cellphone unit was acquired by Microsoft, Nokia sent a
letter
to India's commerce ministry threatening to leave the country because of its tax policies.

GTA Online Launch Overwhelms Servers

Rockstar, the company that produces the Grand Theft Auto video game series, warned that there might be a glitch or two with the online version of Grand Theft Auto V.

Sure enough, despite having bought additional servers to handle the anticipated load, Tuesday's launch of GTA Online overwhelmed the company's capabilities and reportedly locked out more than a few users.

GTA V logged more than
$1 billion
in sales within three days of its Sept. 17 release.

The online version of the game, available for free with the console version, allows up to 16 players to interact simultaneously.